Why "bourgeois"?

Few words embody such comprehensive disdain and judgmental force as 'bourgeois.' Why this is so is not readily clear, since at is basic level it simply means "middle class" or "conventionally middle-class."

Why, then, does this term, which is a simple objective description, provoke such vehement condescension?

One reason is that it describes a population in the middle and therefore an easy target for the classes above and below. Secondly, the values of that middle class can be regarded, simultaneously, as both pretentious and shallow. Thirdly, the bourgeoisie itself is often ill at ease with itself, requiring more emotional buttressing than the lower/working class, or the aristocracy, or "establishment."

Whether the bourgeoisie in America is in the tradition described by Whit Stillman's character, "responsible for everything good that has happened in our civilization," or simply carries out a societal function akin to ballast on a ship, we will explore.

In the course of these ramblings will be a look at some of the "business novels" of American literature, being a unique contribution to English language literature and without a counterpart in Britain.

Since few would describe themselves as bourgeois, analyzing this state of being is problematic, but a few objective criteria might be found.